1. Overview of the mold industry

    Molds are tools for forcing metal or non-metal forming and are essential process equipment for industrial production. The mass production of parts using molds has the advantages of efficiency, high consistency, low energy consumption, high precision and high complexity, so it is widely used in machinery, electronics, automotive, information, aviation, aerospace, light industry, military, Transportation, building materials, medical, biological, energy and other industries. Therefore, the level of mold manufacturing is not only an important indicator to measure the level of manufacturing in a country, but also largely determines the quality, efficiency and new product development capabilities of the country's products. The rapid development of the mold industry can give strong support to the manufacturing industry. The industry-driven proportion of the mold industry is about 1:100, that is, the development of the mold industry is 100 million yuan, which can drive the development of related industries by 10 billion yuan. At present, all industrialized countries attach great importance to the development of the mold manufacturing industry, not only because the mold industry accounts for a high proportion of the machinery industry in various countries, but also because the mold industry provides important processing tools and technologies for the development and application of new technologies and new products. support. Therefore, the mold industry in the industrialized countries such as Europe and the United States is called the "magnetic industry" of "point iron into gold."

    2, the main classification of the mold

    According to different processing objects and processing techniques, the mold can be divided into stamping die, plastic die, casting die, forging die, rubber die, powder metallurgy die, wire drawing die, inorganic material forming die, etc.; among them, stamping die, plastic die, casting die Forging die and rubber mold are the main five types of mold

    3, mold industry characteristics

    (1) Mold manufacturing enterprises have a large number and small scale

    Since most of the molds are made for a single user, mold companies are more numerous and smaller than small industrial enterprises. In 2014, there were 71 production enterprises with a mold output value (mold + mold base + standard parts) of more than 10 million yuan, and 25 companies with more than 100 million yuan. At present, there are about 30,000 mold manufacturing enterprises (factories and points) in the country, and nearly 1 million employees are employed. Most of the mold enterprises are small in scale and the industry concentration is not high.

    (2) "order-based production" business model

    The mold is designed and processed according to the specifications, product use, process structure and processing equipment required by the downstream parts manufacturer. The design requirements and shape and structure changes will require the corresponding mold to change. The above characteristics of the mold production lead to the mold. The mold industry generally adopts the business model of “order-based production”. At the same time, downstream component manufacturers maintain a competitive advantage in the market for their components, and strictly keep some of the parameters of the product. For the same component, only one mold supplier is usually selected to provide the mold. Therefore, a long-term business relationship is formed between the mold company and the downstream component manufacturers. Once the cooperation relationship is established, it will remain stable for a long time. It is precisely because of the above characteristics of mold production that the industry adopts the "order-based production" business model.

    (3) Long delivery acceptance period

    The business process of the mold mainly includes four stages: business negotiation, mold design, processing and debugging, delivery confirmation and quality assurance.